You are reviewing an intubated and ventilated 35 year old 4 days following traumatic subarachnoid haemorrhage. Overnight he has developed a temperature of 39.3 and has developed a new tachycardia of 130 beats/minute and has been commenced on noradrenaline for a low blood pressure (90 mm Hg systolic).
What could be the causes of fever in this man?
The rest of the viva focussed on evaluation of sepsis in a critically ill patient, interpretation of CSF results and biomarkers of sepsis.
Disclaimer: the viva stem above may be an original CICM stem, acquired from their publicly available past papers. Or, perhaps it is a slightly altered version of the original CICM stem. Or, it is a completely original viva stem, concocted by the monstrously amoral author of Deranged Physiology for nothing more than his own personal amusement. In either case, because the college do not make the main viva text or marking criteria available, almost everything here has been confabulated. It might sound like a plausible viva and it could be used for the purpose of practice, but all should be aware that it does not represent the "true" canonical CICM viva station.